Coffee hydroponics

Been scouring the forum and im not sure if its been discussed before.

Im aware that coffee can be grown in parts of the eastern states.
Obviously here we have a mediterranean climate which is unsuitable for coffee growing, but i wonder if grown inside a green house and using coco as the growing medium, would that be entirely possible?
If the requirements of moisture levels, temperature and lighting can be manipulated in the way that mimics the ideal conditions that coffee plants require, what are the chances?

This kind of venture on a backyard scale is for bragging rights. If trees results in harvestable beans, then its a bonus.

Another challenge that faces me or anyone contemplating this kind of project would be how to source.... plants or seed?
Western Australia has strict requirements when it comes to plant material coming into the state.
I flicked through a few catalogues for mail order plants from over east, and found a lot of them are excluded from WA.

Re: Coffee hydroponics

Garry I think youll struggle when the plants reach 2 metres high.
Whats going to stop them falling over long before that?

Im growing in Sydney and this years crop is looking like heaps compared to the first one last year.

Main worry is avoiding frost and then sheltering from wind.
When they were smaller I surrounded them with shade cloth on all sides and above overnight in winter.
From about year 2 on I removed the top cover and now theyre at 2 metres tall the side wind breaks are long gone.

Re: Coffee hydroponics

Well, i was thinking more of a marque style set-up with canvas wall surround supported by iron poles for wind protection. Has to be wind proof as i want the plants to grow on their own unassisted. Misted strong plastic roofing for diffused light to get through as well as for wind barrier.

Either large wooden wine barrels or plastic pots with coco as the growing medium and drip feeding system for watering.

I was down at the local hydroponic centre in Canning Vale and saw bananas, oranges, cumquat and mango tree at 3 metres tall thriving.

The biggest problem i see is temperature. Perth temps can get down to past 0 deg on a "dry" winter.
And the only proper way round this is a glass house rather than greenhouse style.
And then theres cost.
Having a air conditioning unit to regulate temperature is costly initially to buy and to run thereafter.

It is a project i am contemplating further down the track pending available finances and careful planning. So at the moment its dreamland for me.* ;)

Re: Coffee hydroponics

Good question TG,

Perth apart from big differences between its seasons, meaning summers are searing dry and hot with hardly any rain, and winter nights are cold though daytime temps are mild ( mid to high teens). When it rains in winter here, the variation between max and minimum temps is not great, but when a high pressure system takes over, we get warm daytime temps but quite cold nights with very little moisture to retain heat.

I dont know much about Grafton, but perhaps you can compare your past experiences there to your current position in Sydney. Or you could study the weather in Broken Hill. Being inland, theres a wider variation.

How does this relate to coffee growing?
There in Byron Bay, tablelands of Qeensland etc., youve got wet warm, moist but not searing summers and mild winters where minimum temps are not so low. Therefore the requirements to grow are met.

Over here in the west, i don;t think theres any way of growing coffee in the conventional way unless someone can control wind shelter, growing medium, moisture levels, lighting and temperature. This is where hydroponics come in... at a price.

Not interested in growing robusta, but trying to research into the best arabica varietals that is the hardiest.

Re: Coffee hydroponics

Coffee trees require a fair amount of nutrients, yet grows over many years, I highly doubt it would work due to the risk you would run with algae growth in the water. UV treating the water might make it viable..but realistically, for the amount of growing time required and energy youd need to run the hydroponic setup cleanly and effectively, I dont think this would be worthwhile. I think youd be better to invest in a greenhouse than a proper hydroponic setup.

Re: Coffee hydroponics

Thanks for the interesting article Andy.

In a greenhouse environment theres very minimum wind movement because of the walls as well as the roofing, therefore plants should be able to support themselves as long as the roots are secured in the growing medium.

Algae can be controlled by careful preventative maintenance of the system.

Won;t just be growing coffee, available space can also be used to grow fruits and veggies too.

Hydroponics are expensive to set up initially but after that, running costs are not too high.

Certainly, all Im doing is growing a couple of plants in a controlled environment not to make money, but as a hobby.

I guess whats left after learning to brew and roast coffee, is to grow those things. ;)

Re: Coffee hydroponics

I was wondering about that too.

I thought getting a patent is viable if say you designed a Behmor, a label for a chocolate factory or a device that is at the frontier. Surely it does not apply if a technique of training a plant is used, unless i did not read that article thoroughly at 2am half asleep :-X

For the time being, im going to get a couple of coffee plants from a nursery in the swan valley, and grow them in pots in a sheltered area, while the planning stages of the greenhouse is underway.

Hey, so my uncle owns a hydroponic shop and is a coffee lover, if I were to buy him a propose
Prepotted tree an eBay, firstly, Arabica or kona? And secondly, what book is most highly recommended for growing coffee?

FYI, Kona is not a species of coffee as is Arabica. It is an origin of coffee beans as is Columbia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. However rather than being the name of the country where the beans were grown it is the name of an island in Hawaii where coffee is grown.

FYI, Kona is not a species of coffee as is Arabica. It is an origin of coffee beans as is Columbia, Ethiopia, and Kenya. However rather than being the name of the country where the beans were grown it is the name of an island in Hawaii where coffee is grown.

That reminds me... I have a wild coffee tree growing behind my roastery. I've been meaning to bring this up on the forum before but keep forgetting to. I can only assume that one of the coffee beans has somehow ended up back there and has somehow germinated and taken off. It is now a metre+ tall and very healthy and vibrant and is still actively sprouting new foliage in spite of the fact that it is the middle of winter here in Victoria. Now... the question I have is, how is this even possible? How did one of my coffee beans end up becoming a healthy and very vibrant coffee tree... aren't processed coffee beans theoretically inert and incapable of germinating?

Now... the question I have is, how is this even possible? How did one of my coffee beans end up becoming a healthy and very vibrant coffee tree... aren't processed coffee beans theoretically inert and incapable of germinating?

In any event, there is a really healthy coffee tree growing behind my roastery now. At first I was shocked that it could live through a Victorian winter but the weather here probably isn't too different to what you would find at 1200 metres altitude on the side of a mountain in real coffee country.
I'm curious... is there anyone out there capable of identifying the varietal if I posted pics of this mystery tree?

Very cute... but seriously... the question is: Is it possible for a processed coffee bean to germinate? Anyone?

Vini, I think imported beans are irradiated, the customs web site lists:-raw/green coffee beans:- as one of the 'prohibited' products it will remove if found in the mail. I imagine that if it is imported then some form of treatment, either chemical or gamma radiation, would be needed to satisfy quarantine requirements.

It looks like your magic bean either escaped treatment or it was a 'Hand of God' act like Maradona's in the 1986 world cup.

That reminds me... I have a wild coffee tree growing behind my roastery. I've been meaning to bring this up on the forum before but keep forgetting to. I can only assume that one of the coffee beans has somehow ended up back there and has somehow germinated and taken off. It is now a metre+ tall and very healthy and vibrant and is still actively sprouting new foliage in spite of the fact that it is the middle of winter here in Victoria. Now... the question I have is, how is this even possible? How did one of my coffee beans end up becoming a healthy and very vibrant coffee tree... aren't processed coffee beans theoretically inert and incapable of germinating?

From the Sweet Maria's site:

"The green coffee we sell for home roasting is a processed (de-hulled) dried seed. For all the processing entails (from wet-milling, depulping, drying, stripping the parchment, and even polishing sometimes) the embryo that makes this a "live" seed is often intact. It is located at one end of the seed lengthwise, near the crease.

You can test this by soaking 20 seeds in an inch of water overnight: in 12-24 hours you should see the embryo emerge from about 5-8 seeds. This appears as a white protrusion about 1/8" long from the end of the seed."

"The green coffee we sell for home roasting is a processed (de-hulled) dried seed. For all the processing entails (from wet-milling, depulping, drying, stripping the parchment, and even polishing sometimes) the embryo that makes this a "live" seed is often intact. It is located at one end of the seed lengthwise, near the crease.

You can test this by soaking 20 seeds in an inch of water overnight: in 12-24 hours you should see the embryo emerge from about 5-8 seeds. This appears as a white protrusion about 1/8" long from the end of the seed."

Looks like you struck a live one Vinitasse!! :-D

I tried this once with some Yemen, with no effect. Hadn't considered it might have been irradiated. :|

I got some at home depot that were labeled as such, but some bigger ones were labeled just as "tropical foliage". They're used as a house plant in the states, and seem to be in the floral dept of most big box stores, Safeway, Fred Meyers(Kroger), both Lowe's and home depot, though I only started seeing those at the end of the summer.

If you want plants, learn to recognize the leaves, and I'd buy two, transplanting and teasing the root ball apart for one(there's usually four to six plants per pot) and leaving the other. I've had limited success with separating them, but this site says it's the thing to do http://www.thanksgivingcoffee.com/blog/?p=174